Comment is free + Gap year travel | The Guardianhttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/commentisfree+travel/gap-year-travel
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In defence of the gap year | Suzanne Moorehttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/dec/03/gap-years-gorgeous-broaden-mind
It's a sign of the times that any time out of an educational institution is now portrayed with a whiff of deviance<p>If something cannot be costed, measured, assessed and shown to have direct financial benefit, don't do it. Ever. The meaning of life is money. All else is moral failure. What is love, learning, and lazing worth? Sod all.</p><p>This kind of utilitarian thinking is what produces <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/student-life/9713533/Taking-a-year-out-leaves-a-gap-in-your-self-esteem.html" title="">ridiculous surveys</a> telling us that students who have taken a gap year may have earned less by the time they are 30. They may at some point have bunked off school and – stone the crows – may have smoked cannabis! They may also not feel so &quot;in control of their own destiny&quot;.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/dec/03/gap-years-gorgeous-broaden-mind">Continue reading...</a>Gap yearsStudentsEducationUK newsWork & careersGap year travelTravelMon, 03 Dec 2012 09:03:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/dec/03/gap-years-gorgeous-broaden-mindRussell Underwood/Corbis'The lucky ones on gap years may travel but any small measure of freedom is to be applauded.' Photograph: Russell Underwood/CorbisRussell Underwood/Corbis'The lucky ones on gap years may travel but any small measure of freedom is to be applauded.' Photograph: Russell Underwood/CorbisSuzanne Moore2012-12-03T09:03:00ZHave tuition fees put paid to the gap year? | Open threadhttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/aug/16/tuition-fees-gap-year-students
Students are reportedly now going straight to college to avoid next year's tuition fees rise. Tell us if you think the world will cope<p>With university tuition fees about to rise to up &pound;9,000 in 2012, it <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2026440/Student-debt-Thousands-gap-years-escape-tuition-fee-rise.html?ito=feeds-newsxml" title="Mail Online: Death of the gap year as thousands of students give up time abroad to escape tuition fee rise">has been reported</a> that scores of students are cancelling their gap years in order to start university a year early. Clare Beckett, head of recruitment at the University of West London, has said: &quot;Gap years are a thing of the past.&quot;</p><p>The stereotype of the dim-witted &quot;Gap Yah&quot; backpacker has become a <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/mar/28/gap-year-spoof-youtube" title="Guardian: The gap-year video spoof that went viral">common object of ridicule</a>, but given that many spend their time doing voluntary work, should we really cheer on the decline of young people taking a year out? If you're happy to see the end of stories about finding yourself in the Andes, would you suggest other ways in which young people could contribute to society before embarking on a career?</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/aug/16/tuition-fees-gap-year-students">Continue reading...</a>Gap yearsTuition feesVolunteeringHigher educationStudentsEducationUK newsGap year travelTravelSocietyTue, 16 Aug 2011 12:00:01 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/aug/16/tuition-fees-gap-year-studentsPhil Noble/PAPrince Harry in Sydney on his gap year. Photograph: Phil Noble/PAPhil Noble/PAPrince Harry in Sydney on his gap year. Photograph: Phil Noble/PAOpen thread2011-08-16T12:00:01ZGap-year travel won't broaden the mind – it just turns the young into fantasists | David Mitchellhttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/jan/09/david-mitchell-students-gap-years
Youngsters should buckle down rather than gadding around the world before going to university<p>The race is on for A-level students to grab university places before the fee cap is lifted. Pre-Christmas applications reached a record high as candidates scrambled for the last scraps of cheap education. Only the super-rich will be planning gap years at the moment. This, in turn, will create a gap for the rest of the world.</p><p>There'll be no enthusiastic teenagers to jerry-build schools in Mozambique, no au pairs for Italian patriarchs to screw and there are going to be a lot of unfound selves slouching around the Indian subcontinent waiting for their backpacking owners.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/jan/09/david-mitchell-students-gap-years">Continue reading...</a>Gap yearsGap year travelStudentsHigher educationEducationSun, 09 Jan 2011 00:05:35 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/jan/09/david-mitchell-students-gap-yearsDavid Mitchell2011-01-09T00:05:35ZResponse: Backpacker tourism can be beneficial for poor countrieshttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/sep/24/backpacker-travel-benefit-poor-countries
The financial advantages of hosting backpackers often outweigh any social costs<p>Patrick Kingsley (<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2010/sep/06/gap-year-thailand-full-moon-party" title="">Gap years: Wasted youth?, </a>6 September) is right to highlight some of the social problems associated with backpackers at Full Moon Parties in Thailand, Goa and elsewhere. He also describes the common self-image articulated by many backpackers that they are, somehow, not tourists themselves. His interview with Jez captures this disconnect: &quot;Most of the people here are backpackers,&quot; he insists. &quot;Backpackers are infinitely different to tourists. Backpackers will accept anyone.&quot; Despite that, others say that they &quot;hate&quot; conventional tourists who are &quot;idiots&quot;. Kingsley has zeroed in on several ironies. He interviews backpackers on Koh Phangan, an island that meets all conceivable tourist needs – western food, beer and drugs. The backpackers interviewed are preparing to get totally hammered or high, but they still talk of tourists being stupid, or not bothering to understand or relate to their host culture.</p><p>The backpackers' hippy ancestors – on the &quot;road to Kathmandu&quot; in the 60s and 70s – often made similar disparaging comments about the other western tourists that they met in Indian temples or Nepali streets. What has changed are the numbers now &quot;on the road&quot; (or as Kingsley notes, increasingly using low-cost airlines such as Malaysia's AirAsia). No reliable international data exists but it is likely that thousands are travelling in the developing world with routes through Asia, the &quot;gringo trail&quot; in Latin America, and increasingly in southern Africa.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/sep/24/backpacker-travel-benefit-poor-countries">Continue reading...</a>Gap year travelTravelGap yearsStudentsEducationThu, 23 Sep 2010 23:04:38 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/sep/24/backpacker-travel-benefit-poor-countriesMark Hampton2010-09-23T23:04:38ZIn defence of gap years | Sami Kenthttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/aug/30/gap-years-defence
What is so wrong with young people having a go at learning something about foreign cultures?<p>Having read <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/27/gap-year-india-glorified-holiday" title="">Leo Mirani's criticism</a> of gap years in India, and the comments from readers attacking all gap-year students, I feel that the concept of taking a year out requires some defence. As shown by the hugely popular and ever-quoted <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKFjWR7X5dU" title="">Gap Yah video</a>, gap-year-bashing is quite in vogue this year. It is easy to see why: young, wealthy and often out of their comfort zone, these students are an easy target.</p><p>And indeed it would be right to ridicule the deluded and smug teenager who, having seen a few shacks and elephants, claims to have seen and understood the &quot;real India&quot; (or the &quot;real&quot; wherever they had chosen to visit). I would sympathise with Mirani's frustration at these people, but he doesn't seem to have met one, and I don't think, by and large, that they exist.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/aug/30/gap-years-defence">Continue reading...</a>Gap year travelTravelGap yearsEducationMon, 30 Aug 2010 13:01:01 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/aug/30/gap-years-defenceSami Kent2010-08-30T13:01:01ZIndian gap year? Glorified holiday, more like | Leo Miranihttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/aug/27/gap-year-india-glorified-holiday
Students who claim to have discovered the 'real' India on their gap years are deluding themselves<p>Two months ago, when final-year students graduated into the real world, this newspaper told them they <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/jul/06/graduates-face-tougher-jobs-fight" title="Guardian: Graduates warned of record 70 applicants for every job">hadn't a hope in hell of getting a job</a>. This week, it emerged that 150,000 young people <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/aug/23/clearing-university-admissions-ucas" title="Guardian: Clearing 2010: 28% of students still seeking university places">won't even get into university</a>. Some bright person <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/aug/11/clearing-2010-a-levels" title="Guardian: Clearing 2010: A-level students who miss out advised to take gap year">came up with the idea</a> of sending lots of these unfortunates off to foreign countries on a gap year, purportedly so they can learn new skills and improve their employability – oh, and learn about other cultures and stuff.</p><p></p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/aug/27/gap-year-india-glorified-holiday">Continue reading...</a>IndiaWorld newsGap year travelTravelGap yearsStudentsEducationFri, 27 Aug 2010 14:33:59 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/aug/27/gap-year-india-glorified-holidayAnupam Nath/APA Hindu holy man performs yoga on a hilltop at Kamakhya temple in Gauhati, India. Photograph: Anupam Nath/APAnupam Nath/APA Hindu holy man performs yoga on a hilltop at Kamakhya temple in Gauhati, India. Photograph: Anupam Nath/APLeo Mirani2010-08-27T14:33:59ZResponse: Gap years don't have to involve foreign travel or be unaffordablehttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/nov/19/year-in-industry-chris-ward
Many students take work placements in Britain, earning money and gaining contacts, says Chris Ward<p>Your article reporting that gap years are &quot;falling out of favour&quot; seemed to focus entirely on the concept that a true gap year involves travel (<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/nov/05/gap-year-students-cambridge-oxford">Mind the gap: why fewer students take a year out before university</a>, November 5).</p><p>You reported a &quot;new breed of hardheaded students&quot; who realise that, with rising rents and an uncertain financial future, they and their parents can no longer afford a year abroad. But the article didn't mention the many students who take a gap year and work in a professional role. Many of them gain placements related to the degree they will go on to study. </p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/nov/19/year-in-industry-chris-ward">Continue reading...</a>Gap yearsStudentsEducationGap year travelTravelWed, 19 Nov 2008 00:01:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/nov/19/year-in-industry-chris-wardChris Ward2008-11-19T00:01:00ZTanya Gold: Gap-year students are just misery tourists mixing with The Poor because it looks good on Facebookhttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/nov/06/gap-years-travel-students
They clog up the internet with their whining. 'No one met me at the airport!' they squeal<p>The number of teenagers taking gap years has shrunk, like a wildebeest's watering-hole in a drought. It's the credit crunch, growing more silvery linings by the day. And this pleases me. I don't like to see posh teenagers doing misery tourism and returning with batik trousers and malaria. (Because they are too stupid to take malaria pills and wear non-batik trousers.)</p><p>Affluent European adolescents used to do the Grand Tour. They went to Italy to admire the art. Now they go to Africa to admire the shit. Gap years are moral imperialism. It's a year-long narcissism party, where the gap-yearers use Africans and South Americans and Indians as props in the movie of their own wonderfulness. They want to have a &quot;caring experience&quot;. So they invade slums and orphanages and shanty towns. They turn up with teeth like brand-new fridges and shout, &quot;Let's build a waterslide, guys!&quot; Then they disappear back to Oxford or Exeter or the LSE. It's rare that they do anything useful. </p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/nov/06/gap-years-travel-students">Continue reading...</a>Gap yearsGap year travelTravelStudentsEducationWorld newsThu, 06 Nov 2008 00:01:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/nov/06/gap-years-travel-studentsTanya Gold2008-11-06T00:01:00ZMedia and the mobhttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/feb/20/mediaandthemob
The discomfiture of a would-be gap year blogger heralds the humbling of our journalistic elite<p>Young <a href="http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/people,688,how-a-gap-year-bloggers-cyber-travels-went-wrong,17853">Max Gogarty</a> may or may not go on to become a distinguished man of letters. He has, however, already left his mark on the history of communications.</p><p>The <a href="http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/rafael_behr/2008/02/backpackers_bullies_and_intern.html">furore</a> surrounding Max's <a href="http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/travelog/2008/02/skins_blog.html">debut</a> in travel journalism clearly signals something. Guardian bigwigs who've nervously <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/feb/17/internet?gusrc=rss&amp;feed=technology">offered</a> their thoughts on the matter seem clear about what they'd like it to portend. They yearn for a revulsion from the savagery of the internet that would see electronic vituperation give way to civility, compassion and respect for professional writers.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/feb/20/mediaandthemob">Continue reading...</a>Newspapers & magazinesMediaInternetBloggingGap year travelGap yearsWed, 20 Feb 2008 15:00:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/feb/20/mediaandthemobDavid Cox2008-02-20T15:00:00ZNot a walk in the parkhttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/nov/12/notawalkinthepark
An innovative project to bring Zionist gap year students together with young Palestinians is proving difficult to get off the ground<p>As a phalanx of heavily armed soldiers prowled along King David Street, the buildings were bathed in blue neon light from the police vans and jeeps parked on every available inch of pavement. The natives weren't particularly restless - after all, the <a href="http://www.danhotels-israel.com/kingdavid/index.html?gclid=CNuS0Iyc1Y8CFRf8EAodXj5f7A">King David Hotel</a> and its neighbour, the Citadel, are the bases of choice for the never-ending stream of visiting dignitaries to Israel's capital.</p><p>When the clock struck seven, the already tight security was upped another notch, as two groups of delegates ducked out of side exits and made their way into waiting motorcades. In the first party was one <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/ricebio.html">Condoleezza Rice</a>, en route to making yet another plaintive appeal to the region's leaders to give peace a chance. In the other, slightly smaller group was a similarly high-powered entourage, made up of myself, my friend Nic, along with two Israeli-Arab friends and an eminent sheikh's son from East Jerusalem.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/nov/12/notawalkinthepark">Continue reading...</a>IsraelWorld newsUS newsMiddle East and North AfricaGap year travelGap yearsMon, 12 Nov 2007 08:00:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/nov/12/notawalkintheparkSeth Freedman2007-11-12T08:00:00ZMind the gaphttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/aug/17/mindthegap
Gap year volunteering shouldn't cost the earth: if you plan carefully it is still a very worthwhile thing to do.<p>As has become the fashion, I took a gap year before starting university. I spent six months volunteering in Sri Lanka, teaching English at a home for girls from single parent and disadvantaged families. I went with a small UK-based charity, and paid a reasonable, all-inclusive fee. During my time, I learned a lot about the realities of life in a developing country. I gained confidence and independence, and was more culturally aware, and better prepared to later backpack around southeast Asia. I would even go so far as to say that I felt that I made a contribution that was valued within the local community.</p><p>Perhaps it is because I had a rewarding volunteer experience that I am highly sceptical of the increasing number of gap year companies that charge an excessive sum for short-term volunteering opportunities in developing countries. Designed and marketed to make young people feel that they can really make a contribution (without a heavy time commitment), in reality many volunteer placements are little more than glorified package <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,2149400,00.html">holidays</a>. Rather than benefiting a community these types of placement increase animosity between locals and tourists as groups of wealthy young students come and go, splashing their money around and patronising the locals by claiming that their two-week stint really &quot;made a difference&quot;. Anyone volunteering for less than three months is unlikely to experience more than a holiday.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/aug/17/mindthegap">Continue reading...</a>Voluntary sectorMoneyGap year travelGap yearsFri, 17 Aug 2007 08:30:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/aug/17/mindthegapAyesha Christie2007-08-17T08:30:00ZThe world on a platehttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/aug/15/theworldonaplate
We need to discourage the idea that gap-year volunteering projects are a rite of passage - and question the companies who offer such experiences.<p>Yesterday, <a href="http://education.guardian.co.uk/students/gapyear/story/0,,2148122,00.html">VSO warned</a> volunteers away from the companies that attract school leavers with their offers of gap year projects in glorious destinations, which will not only add to their personal development but also help save the world. They are not the first to question the price and motive of the average gap-year project and need only visit online travel forums to see this already happening. Young travellers are demonstrating awareness that is often ignored. They are, in fact, showing themselves to be responsible travellers simply by demanding accountability from the companies with which they spend their hard earned cash.</p><p>So if these travellers and volunteers are already clued up, what's the problem? Quite simply, there is a lack of alternatives for those who do want to get involved and do something beneficial during a trip abroad. It has become ingrained that a gap year without altruistic motives is simply a pre-freshers' week warm up. This is quite unfair, given that a respectful traveller, gapper or otherwise, spends more money locally and integrates with the communities they visit. In this case more good is done than would be otherwise via a poorly managed volunteering effort.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/aug/15/theworldonaplate">Continue reading...</a>Voluntary sectorEducationGap year travelGap yearsWed, 15 Aug 2007 10:30:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/aug/15/theworldonaplateSally Broom2007-08-15T10:30:00ZIn praise of ... adult gap yearshttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/jul/11/comment.comment
<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/jul/11/comment.comment">Continue reading...</a>TravelGap year travelBackpackingTue, 10 Jul 2007 23:11:29 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/jul/11/comment.commentLeader2007-07-10T23:11:29ZWhat's the point of gap years?http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/aug/15/gapyearcolonialsm
There are plenty of pointless gap-year projects - but accusing volunteers of colonialism won't help anyone.<p>Gap years are at risk of becoming outdated and a new form of colonialism. The reason for this, <a href="http://www.vso.org.uk/news/pressreleases/gap_years.asp">according to the charity Voluntary Service Overseas</a> (VSO) is that gap years &quot;tend to focus on how British youngsters can help poor communities overseas, rather than on what we can learn from them&quot;.</p><p>The solution? Well, VSO's answer is to plug their own gap year scheme, &quot;global xchange&quot;. Of course, it's sheer coincidence that, with A-levels results coming out, now is the busiest time in the increasingly competitive gap year market, and providers need all the publicity they can get...</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/aug/15/gapyearcolonialsm">Continue reading...</a>StudentsEducationGap year travelGap yearsTue, 15 Aug 2006 14:40:34 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/aug/15/gapyearcolonialsmMark Pallis2006-08-15T14:40:34Z